Gingerbread Amazeballs
‘Tis the season for giving,
for memories,
for making our yard look like a light explosion,
for mugs of candy cane green tea while watching “Four Christmases”
for holiday-ifying all of my favorite recipes….
The gingerbread amazeball had to happen 😉
Sometimes it’s fun to stick with the usual snack standbys:
-egg burritos
-salad beast
-yogurt parfaits
-jerky
However, when the holidays roll around, I feel inspired to add some seasonal pizazz to my usual rotation. I’ll walk on the wild side and add cranberries with an orange vinaigrette to my salads, fresh roasted chilies to my egg burritos -in Tucson, roasted chilies scream “Christmas!”- and some crumbled cookies into my yogurt parfaits 😉 For amazeballs, the possibilities are endless. I especially love the pumpkin, cranberry orange and blueberry lemon variety.
Gingerbread Amazeballs Protein Snack
I’ve been on a huge gingerbread kick lately, so I thought I’d add some of those spices to my beloved protein-packed snack.
Bonus: you can shape the ballz into adorable little gingerbread folks.
Cute, huh?!
One lesson I had to learn the hard way: egg white protein is not good for baking or recipe creation. I’ve been loving the Jay Robb egg white protein, but if you try to bake with it or combine it with various textured ingredients, it transforms into a gooey taffy-like substance. It’s best with some type of milk or in my beloved breakfast cookie cereal. For everything else (like these amazeballs), I alternate between Vega and Sun Warrior.
Molasses Makes the Gingerbread
What takes these amazeballs from “spiced” to “gingerbread city” is the addition of molasses. Not only does it yield a warm chocolate hue and sweet flavor, but molasses also has a surprising amount ofhealth benefits.
1 tablespoon of molasses will give you 20% of your recommended calcium for the day, 22% the recommended amount of magnesium and about 40% of your iron requirement (source). Molasses is also used as a natural healing remedy for acne, depression, anxiety, chronic ailments and heart palpitations. Nice coincidence that our holiday cookies have some molasses boosts amidst the sugar in what can be a stressful time of year 😉
Hope you enjoy these! If you put them on the holiday tray and let them masquerade as cookies, I won’t tell anyone.
PrintGingerbread amazeballs
A high protein portable snack with holiday spice!
- Prep Time: 5
- Total Time: 5 minutes
- Yield: 5 1x
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons dry ingredient (oats, shredded coconut and almond meal all work well)
- 2 tablespoons vanilla protein powder (recommend brown rice, Vega or whey protein)
- 2 tablespoons nut butter of choice
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon molasses
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon each cloves and ginger
- pinch of nutmeg
- pinch of sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Pulse all ingredients in a mini food processor until a dough forms.
- Using a melon ball scooper, scoop into ball shapes and roll with your hands until smooth.
- If you like, flatten the balls and cut into shapes using a cookie cutter 🙂
- Store covered in the fridge for up to five days.
Notes
- Honey works for these, too, but I’d halve the honey and add a little coconut oil. Otherwise, the mixture is too sweet.
- Instead of cloves, ginger and nutmeg, you can also use 1/4 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 2
See ya later with day 4 of giveaways!
xoxo
Gina
45 Comments
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Thank you! I’m on a gingerbread kick now and this is perfect!
Do you have a recipe for your egg burritos?
Sounds yummy! I desperately need to make something gingerbread or peppermint!
gingerbread is my favorite!! think this might work if i subbed coconut flour for the protein powder? i like to get my protein from eggs/meat and hate the taste of the powders ha. the little g-men are so cute!
i’m not sure.. coconut flour is very thirsty so the texture could be off. let me know how they turn out!
Any excuse to dip into the molasses jar!
These look great! I love gingerbread cookies and adding the protein powder is such a good idea!
Love the amazeballs – cannot wait to try these little gems!
These are adorable and so much better than the traditional gingerbread cookie!
Perfect timing for me! I need to make some and I’m obsessed with Gingerbread flavors right now!
whoo hoo! me too 🙂
Gina! These sound so darn yummy!
thank you!
awesome amazeballs recipe! woo hoo!
Yum! I’ve been on a gingerbread kick too! If I use oats, would you suggest pulsing them down to a powder before adding the rest of the ingredients?
yep, but in a pinch i’ve just thrown everything in there and it works 😉
Thank you! I’m giving these a try when I get home from work!
sounds delicious, I’ll have to try them out once I get my hands on some molasses! that way I’ll have an excuse to make gingerbread cookies while i’m at it 😉
Woohoo – I love all things festive and am so happy you put a healthy spin on one of my weaknesses! I can’t wait to make these!!
:)! hope you love them!
These sound AMAZING!! I love the comment about the light explosion on your lawn too haha!! So true!
Theses sound so yummy and are adorable! Seems like a lot of sugar, though.
I’m obsessed with gingerbread flavoured things this season! So these amazeballs sound…amazeballs! 🙂
thank you! let me know if you try them 🙂
Yum! Why is it that holiday-ified eats seem so much better?! Can’t wait to try these GBB. And thanks for the heads-up on the egg white protein!
Sounds yummy. You inspire me to pursue healthy habits. I’m on a (permanent) health kick 😉 I’ve been mostly eating clean foods, and feel good. I told my Husband it wasn’t about how I look, it’s how I feel. Then, wait a minute…I’m totally lying – scratch that. Lol. But, I DO feel good. So, thanks for the extra push & motivation. My body thanks you.
thank you so much, sarah!
hope you and your family have a wonderful holiday season <3
These sound like the absolute best snack for the holiday season. I am pumped to try them out since I am pretty much obsessed with all things gingerbread-related right now!
me too! they make an awesome, healthy little snack 🙂
It may be the holiday season, but I’ve been on the BIGGEST molasses kick lately. I got hit with a random craving a couple of weeks ago, and I’ve been looking for different ways to get it in. These look delicious, Gina… Thanks for sharing!
PS — love the ones shaped like gingerbread men!
thank you! 🙂
loving molasses lately, too!
I have a whole thing of molasses just waiting to be used…these look like a great little snack before a light workout too!
definitely! hope you love them 🙂
So no nut butter in these at all?
These sound so good. I have also been on a big gingerbread kick lately. Last year it was peppermint that I could not get enough of.
These are SO adorable! xo
yum please!!!
Mmmmm…..yum!
I adore gingerbread! Yum! Thank you!
Gina!
Thanks for the recipe. I do think the proportions might be a bit off? I was surprised to see there were 2 tbsp of sweetener in the recipe (maple syrup + molasses) because your usual amazeballz recipes have 1 tbsp of sweetener… and then when I had blended it all together the dough was too sticky and wet to mold into amazeballz! I wonder if the recipe is more like 1/2 tbsp of molasses and 1/2 tbsp of maple syrup?
Kirby
i did 1 tablespoon of each and it was fine— sorry it was sticky for you! i’ll recheck. did you add more dry ingredients?
No need to apologize at all! I ended up doubling the protein powder, oats, and almond butter and it was all good. Thanks again for the recipe. It was delicious.
Just finished making/eating these. SO GOOD. Thank you!!
Oh God yes! I’ve been loving your amazeballs for years – mainly the original version – but now a festive edition? Count me in 😀
These are delicious! I made them yesterday, with the help of my 3 year old, and I wanted to just eat all of the dough ;). It tasted like raw molasses cookie dough, so I felt like I was eating something naughty. Great flavor. Thanks for sharing the recipe! 🙂